Computer systems and networks have facilitated the tasks of buying and selling goods. For example, global computer networks, such as the Internet, have allowed purchasers to relatively quickly and efficiently seek and purchase goods online. Similarly, global computer networks provide an efficient and cost-effective medium for many companies to advertise and sell their goods. These companies typically have an infrastructure to accept orders of goods from remote purchasers, to perform the financial transactions necessary to confirm and complete the sale of goods, to ship or distribute the goods to remote purchasers, and to perform other sale-related logistics. For these reasons, many companies actively use the Internet to sell and distribute a wide variety of goods. However, individuals and small entities, who lack the necessary infrastructure, cannot take advantage of the many benefits provided by the Internet and electronic commerce.
For example and without limitation, individuals desiring to sell certain goods online often lack the ability to reach potential buyers, ensure full and prompt payment from buyers, and ship goods to buyers in diverse geographic locations in a timely and efficient manner. Likewise, purchasers desiring to buy certain goods online from individual sellers often lack the ability to promptly locate the goods that are being offered for sale, and locate reliable sellers of the certain goods, who will ship the goods in a secure and timely manner.
One example of a market for goods that has not been efficiently implemented within the realm of electronic commerce is the secondary event ticket market. The secondary ticket market encompasses all instances in which live event tickets trade after the original point of purchase. This market exists for several reasons. First, event tickets have an especially time-sensitive nature. Numerous tickets expire unused each year because there is no efficient mechanism to buy and/or sell secondary event tickets. When a ticket expires after an event has passed, it loses 100% of its intrinsic value. As a result, if the ticket holder cannot attend the event, the only way to realize value for a ticket is to sell it in the secondary market. Second, event venues have only a fixed supply of seating. Therefore, the number of available tickets for a particular event is limited, which means that high-demand events can have significant volumes of secondary trading. Third, many venues and/or sports franchises offer “season tickets,” which have packaging dynamics that favor the secondary market. For example, season tickets are often packaged in bulk so that enthusiasts, who desire preferable seating and/or pricing for sporting and entertainment events, are required to purchase a great many (e.g., an entire season's worth) of tickets at once. As a result, season ticket holders often possess a number of tickets for events that they cannot attend, and therefore desire to sell on the secondary market. Fourth, tickets are often intentionally mis-priced in the primary market. For example, although the ticket prices for certain football games (e.g., division rivalry, games) are generally the same as the ticket prices for other “less-desirable” football games (e.g., certain non-division games) in the same venue, the supply and demand for these similarly priced-games may be substantially different, thereby favoring the secondary market. Fifth, location-sensitive buyers, who would like to sit only in certain seat locations, further create a supply and demand imbalance. Particularly, each seat location in a venue is totally unique, which means there could be demand for a specific seat location that exceeds supply even when the venue is not sold out in the primary market, thereby favoring the secondary market. For all of these reasons, the secondary ticket market in the entertainment and sports industries is large and growing.
Prior efforts that have been made to serve this secondary market have suffered from many drawbacks. By way of example, ticket brokers and “scalpers,” who have traditionally serviced this secondary market, typically operate within only a single metropolitan area or specific geographic region. Furthermore, these traditional brokers and “scalpers” lack the infrastructure and logistics necessary to efficiently serve a wide base of consumers and to earn consumers' business and trust.
The current providers and systems for secondary ticket transactions do not provide appropriate benefits for fans, teams, artists and venues. Fans who wish to buy or sell secondary tickets do not have a legitimate, simple and secure system through which to transact. Teams, venues and artists not only miss out on the direct economic benefits of these secondary market transactions, but are also unable to tap into the invaluable marketing and pricing information that they provide. Finally, the inefficiencies of the current secondary markets result in many unused tickets, causing not only a loss to the ticket-holder, but also a loss in revenue from concessions, parking, and merchandise to the venue.
It is therefore desirable to provide a system and method for providing logistics for the purchase and sale of goods, such as event tickets, which overcomes the previously-delineated drawbacks and limitations of prior systems and methods, and which facilitates the sale of goods by performing all necessary payment and shipping logistics without requiring interaction between the buyer and seller.